Relations of zoned pegmatites to other pegmatites, granite, and metamorphic rocks in the southern Black Hills, South Dakota

The pegmatite field and the Harney Peak Granite of the southern Black Hills, South Dakota, form an igneous system that progresses from slightly biotitic muscovite granite through layered pegmatitic granite, with alternating sodic and potassic rocks, to simple plagioclase-quartz-perthite pegmatites, and on to zoned pegmatites. Most of the country rocks are Lower Proterozoic mica schists. At 1700 Ga, intrusion of the Harney Peak Granite created a large dome in these rocks, a thermal aureole with a staurolite, a first sillimanite isograd, and a small area of metamorphism above the second sillimanite isograd. The zoned pegmatites have a strong tendency to occur in clusters, and the types of pegmatites are different in different clusters. A less obvious tendency is a regional zonation in which rare-mineral pegmatites become more abundant and muscovite pegmatites less abundant toward the outskirts of the region. The composition of the granite indicates that its magma originated by partial melting of metasedimentary mica schists similar to those at the present surface. The pegmatitic nature of most of the granite probably reflects exsolution of an aqueous phase. -from Authors